On her recent visit to California, the president of SATA-Azores Airlines, Teresa Gonçalves, offered Fresno State, through the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) at California State University in Fresno, founded and directed by Diniz Borges, a new and exciting opportunity for student exchanges with Portugal. The protocol will pay the airline tickets for five students from this university to do internships in the Azores in partnership with SATA and other entities. For Teresa Gonçalves, this is a way for SATA-Azores Airlines to contribute to strengthening relations between the Azores and the Diaspora through teaching and research. Saúl Jimenez-Sandoval, President of the university, who is fluent in Portuguese, said at the meeting with the president and the SATA-Azores Airlines delegation that: “this opportunity will open up new potential for cooperation between the students of this university and the Azores. It’s a magnificent contribution to California’s Azorean diaspora and our campus.” In addition to strengthening the internships that students from the Jordan College of Agricultural Science and Technology at Fresno State do with the College of Agricultural Sciences of the University of the Azores, with the support of the Angra City Council, this new offer from SATA will also allow for other possibilities, including the internship of a Social Science student in a municipality in the Azores, or even in the regional government. The Dean of the College of Social Sciences, who was also present at a lunch with the delegation from SATA-Azores Airlines, said that there is a lot of interest from students interested in public service in doing an internship in other areas and getting to know the reality of the Azorean public service, would certainly be beneficial.


The SATA-Azores Airlines delegation, headed by president Teresa Gonçalves, spent five days in California and at the California State University in Fresno, met several administrators, professors, and deans, as well as Rector Saúl Jimenez Sandoval, who has a Ph.D. in Portuguese and Spanish, is fluent in Portuguese, knows the Azores and has pledged to work towards closer ties between the Azores and Fresno State. At the meeting with Teresa Gonçalves, he said: “I loved my time in the Azores, and I would love to see more exchanges between the Azores and this university. I see the Azores as having a lot of potential, and we need to make that potential known to our students, faculty, and the community at large.”
For Diniz Borges, director of PBBI, the presence of SATA-Azores Airlines at California State University Fresno was important. It will bring students a new wealth of opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic. Alcidia Freitas Gomes, an emigrant from the island of Flores who runs the exchange program at the College of Agricultural Sciences AgOne Foundation, and the Dean of JCAST were also present at the meeting/lunch. Dean Rollston St. Hillaire was extremely grateful for this partnership with SATA.
SATA-Azores Airlines’ visit to California was coordinated by the company’s representative in that state, Zeto Carvalho, whose dedication to SATA and the diaspora has been truly praiseworthy attributes recognized by our Azorean diaspora in California.


Here are a few more images of the SATA visit to Fresno State and the Fresno area.

Novidades is a daily news platform about the Azores and the Diaspora, put forth as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Cultures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance)  at California State University, Fresno–PBBI thanks the sponsorship of the Luso-American Development Foundation from Lisbon, Portugal (FLAD)